Wikis Wander In
I introduced PBwiki to a number of teachers at our high school recently. One just ran with it and now has her ninth grade social studies classes busily putting together review materials on her “Globalpedia.” For the others, I’ve decided to offer a little carrot: an online summer reading list for use by the faculties at our three schools. I thought this would be a simple way to expose people to wikis: a wiki of just four pages (Introduction, Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Biography) which could be read quickly and subjected to simple, minor edits. Focus on something that most teachers know about and like to do at a time when they are gearing up to do a lot of it.
I started by trying to convince the few teachers who were already comfortable using wikis to go in and add a few books. Nothing more intimidating than a blank page staring back at you when you’re a wiki newbie. Once I had seeded the wiki a bit, I sent a blast e-mail to all of the teachers inviting them to participate. Many responded asking to be invited into the wiki and thanking me for putting it all together. But since then, only a few have actually gone in and added their own favorite books.
Frustrating. Am I being too impatient here? Is it just the wrong time of year? Or is the problem that these people thought they were getting a freebie, an opportunity to grab a few titles and run off to the bookstore without adding their own two cents? Is it just that they don’t get it – the fact that in this world the quality of the resource depends almost entirely on the community’s willingness to build it? Who knows? Maybe it just needs time…
